In addition, the lab still has a backlog of 4,076 untested rape kits dating to 1996, as well as 969 newer criminal cases awaiting DNA testing.

Citing the backlog, which she says grows by 75 cases a month, Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos has called for the establishment of an emergency city-county DNA lab to dispose of thousands of untested cases. A temporary lab, which some officials say could be outfitted in vacant labs at the Texas Medical Center for $1.3 million, would meet local needs until the construction of a regional crime lab that is part of Harris County's long-range plans.

The city's financial woes, however, have made Mayor Annise Parker and HPD leadership cautious about a forensic partnership, and the project was not included in HPD's $666 million budget approved earlier this month.

"My goal is to roll as many of these forensic applications as possible out of the control of the police department" and into an independent crime lab, Parker said recently. But she added a caveat: "This is not a good economy to be launching new initiatives that cost more money. On the other hand, we really can't put a price on justice, and these kind of cleanup operations have proved to be extremely expensive to the city of Houston."

"I cannot overstate the vital importance and necessity of the court to authorize the budget office to immediately proceed," Lykos said. "The scientific tools exist to identify, apprehend and successfully prosecute dangerous criminals and prevent wrongful convictions. And we don't have them."

Hiring more analysts

For now, HPD will continue to process new cases by hiring more analysts and buying automated equipment to upgrade its DNA lab on the 26th floor of the downtown police headquarters. To deal with the rape kit backlog, the department last month applied for a $1.1 million federal grant to hire 10 temporary criminologists to process 2,400 of the 4,076 kits.

Dr. Laura Gahn, director of the police DNA lab, confirmed the lab is not keeping abreast of new cases but said that goal will be met with new testing equipment and the hiring of a final staff member.

"Once we have all of the staffing and all of the equipment that we are currently bringing on board, and we have the money ... we will have a (testing) capacity in excess of the cases coming in,“ said Gahn, who could not say when that would occur.

Local and statewide experts, even a former Houston police chief, insist HPD should get out of the forensic testing business altogether, noting that backlogs exist not only in DNA but also in the ballistics and fingerprints divisions.

"At a bare minimum, the whole process of forensic testing — old cases or new cases — has to be removed over to some responsible entity and, given the track record of HPD, they're not the ones to do this," said Jeff Blackburn, general counsel for the Innocence Project of Texas. "They just can't clean this up."

Errors feared

Bob Wicoff, one of three local lawyers appointed to review convictions that relied on HPD forensic evidence, said he has been impressed with the credentials of personnel hired in HPD's new DNA lab. However, he said he is worried that overworked scientists may make errors in the small HPD lab, which has 19 workers compared with the county's 39 analysts.

"That's a huge problem — if you don't have enough help, you start to cut corners,“ Wicoff said. "My reaction is anything that can get (HPD) more help is good, but I think a regional crime lab would be my pick.“

He also said that in a police lab, there is a tendency for police officers to schmooze with lab technicians about cases being tested.

"There might be some subtle pressure to get the results the police want, and with a regional crime lab, you'd eliminate a lot of that," he said.

Council member C.O. Bradford, who acknowledged some of the crime lab "debacles" occurred during his watch as police chief from 1997 to 2004, said all forensic testing should be moved outside the department. Police commanders, he said, are not trained or qualified to oversee scientific labs that have become increasingly more complex. And they tend to budget more for traditional police operations, such as improving response times.

City-county talks

HPD closed its DNA lab in December 2002, following news coverage of a number of false convictions due to shoddy practices, poor supervision, false testimony and contaminated evidence due to a leaky roof. The city hired forensic expert Michael Brom- wich to investigate the entire HPD crime lab. His January 2006 report concluded police administrators failed to provide the lab with adequate resources during the previous 15 years.

In recent weeks, talks began between city and county officials to hammer out the logistics and finances of a possible merger of forensic testing, county budget officer Dick Raycraft said.

"We're going to try and move it along as quickly as we can," Raycraft said. "It's a pretty sizable undertaking, but there's no reason why we can't do it. We have to be cautious and make sure to resolve all issues."

Harris County's Chief Medical examiner Dr. Luis A Sanchez said his department is fully capable of taking over all of HPD's testing of DNA evidence, including tackling the backlog.

"Valid science is the cornerstone of the criminal justice system," Sanchez wrote in a statement. "Our commitment to move forward with this essential endeavor rests with the City of Houston. We now await the necessary resources to create and support the regional DNA laboratory."